Monday, February 9, 2015

The Albin Ballad engine lives in an enclosed fibreglass box under the cockpit floor. The lid is a two part affair that seals against the engine bay pan. The forward section holds the companionway stairs, with a small storage box on top. Both sections are tied down, and together, with rubber hood latches.

Both pieces slide forward off the engine pan into the main cabin. For checking fluids and doing oil changes only the forward part needs to be removed. With the removable cockpit side panels installed during the restoration, there's 360° access to the engine and gearbox, albeit somewhat cramped.

My latest project has been to reduce some of the noise coming through the engine box housing the Yanmar 2GMF 20 Diesel.
I've used 1" (25mm) sheets of Foam Sandwiched Mass Loaded Vinyl Barrier with a vapor barrier on one side. I used these directions as an installation guide.
Cardboard templates were made for each piece, allowing for the actual thickness of the material.

To affix the sheets to the inside of the engine box a spray-on adhesive combined with pins epoxy'd to the inside of the fibreglass box were used.

This sound deadening material adds a bit of extra weight to the two-piece box, but this only proved an inconvenience when transporting it to the boat and lifting the pieces through the companionway opening.

The Yanmar has a fuel filter bolt protruding on the starboard side, so a notch in the wood frame on the forward box was needed to allow fit. Other than that, once inside the cabin, they're relatively easy to slide into place.

Approximate weight of the material is 4.8kg/m² (1 lb/ft²). Amount used on the rear box was 0.73 m² (3.5 kg) and the front box 0.69 m² (3.3 kg), for a total added weight of about 6.8 kg (15 lbs)

Being concerned about possible heat build-up in the engine room, I've installed a remote heat sensor on the inside of the box.
I've only run the engine at the dock, but noticed an immediate reduction in noise. Next job is to test it under way, with the Admirable along for a second opinion. :)

Saturday, November 9, 2013

The Ballad has a small anchor cradle to the starboard side of the fore stay attachment, an integral part of that fitting. Trying to fit my 10kg Bruce there was not an option. Looking at the Windline BRM-4, especially made for the 10kg Bruce, I found it was about 1/2" too wide to squeeze on the port side, between the fore stay fitting and the stanchion upright. So ... back to the drawing board.

My spare anchor is a 7kg Bruce "clone" and looked like it might fit the bill.

Starboard view of smaller "Bruce"

I drilled a hole through the forward part of the shank to align with the holes in the Ballad anchor mount and used a 1/4" bolt to hold it fast. This will soon be replaced by a spring-loaded pin to make it a one-handed job to undo.
The original bronze anchor roller was replaced with a larger Delrin one, with deeper and narrower groove to hold the shank better.

Port view of smaller "Bruce" (wing nut is on temporary holding bolt, soon to replaced by a pin)

This setup held the head of the anchor well enough, but the tail end was free to flop around. An order to Marine Parts Depotfor an anchor lock solved the problem.

Anchor Lock, raised up on 3/4" block, and bolted through the deck.

Aft view of anchor lock.

It's a compromise, as it's a bit small for a 30' boat, but will
be OK for 90% of my anchoring needs. If I need a bigger hook for an
overnight anchorage it's a simple matter to swap it for the 10kg Bruce or the 25lb CQR that I have as spares.

Friday, May 24, 2013

It's good for the soul to have a change of pace occasionally. As a reprieve from sanding and priming and sanding on the decks and cockpit I checked my list looking for a nice small project to tackle: the tiller looked interesting.

Priming and Sanding.

The Ballad tiller is a simple shape: a curve near the yoke and a gentle sweep to the forward end. The previous tiller had been smashed when the mast was lowered. I'd glued it back together to get the shape, and also used it to cut plugs from for patching holes in the interior Mahogany joinery.

Rather than cut from one solid piece of wood like the one I was replacing, laminated construction seemed the best option. Instead of using thin strips that would bend easily I decided to try using 1/2" strips and steam bend them before laying them up. This would relieve most of the stress in the wood fibers.

A simple steam box about 5' long was made from some 2x6 material, leaving an inside box about 4" square and 5' long, with 1/2" ply end caps. A 6" x 4" slot was cut in the center of the bottom and a piece of 1/2" plywood, large enough to cover the boiling water pot with a matching hole, was attached. The whole rig sat on a Coleman propane camp stove set on the garage floor.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Today I opened the goody drawer and pulled out some things I bought a while ago to light the cabin. My idea is to have the cabins lit with indirect lighting along both sides. The valences covering the hull-deck joint seemed a logical place. The idea is to illuminate the boat enough to find ones way around without draining the battery. To do this I picked up some strip LED's on ebay.

Strip LED's with a solder terminal every three diodes.

They came in a 15' roll with with soldering pads every third diode so one can create custom lengths, Cost, including shipping, was less than seven dollars. ﻿

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

With the cooler weather here again it was time to line up an indoor job for a few days. I've had my roll of upholstery fabric for a while, sitting in the basement waiting for some attention.

The first pieces made were the six settee cushions, using super soft foam for filler and covered with an acrylic fiber fill for a bit of extra padding. The fiber fill also makes stuffing the foam into the cover easier.

Cutting fabric, with windows open and fan on, using a hot knife to prevent fraying,

Because the fabric has a lot of longitudinal fibers, my first attempt cutting it with scissors resulted in a lot of frayed ends coming loose, making it hard to sew. I was concerned the fraying would spread over time and weaken the seams. Using a hot knife solved the problem nicely.

Monday, December 17, 2012

The last several weeks have been spent on many smaller tasks, with some left partially finished until old parts were rebuilt or new parts ordered.

One of the important things was to get the engine completely connected to shaft, fuel, water, and exhaust, and give it a test run to check for operation and leaks. This went well, even though I discovered that Vetus water strainers love a slight vacuum, but won't tolerate any pressure without leaking water all over the locker. This turned out to be a good test of water being able to find it's way to the bilge without flooding any lockers!
Bennath has a total of seven winches: four in the cockpit, two on the mast, and one on the coach roof. Every winch needed disassembly and cleaning, before reassembly with fresh grease, and new pawl springs. The sheet winches needed the drums re-plated, but the rest were still in acceptable condition.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Previous Post: One Year in Restoration: the Boat Rescue.
It's been a busy summer ... is it almost over already? Between trips in Sin Tacha to the Albin Vega Rendezvous (which turned into an eleven day jaunt) and two weeks in Oklahoma with the "kids", there has been less work done on the Ballad than usual.
I'll update with some captioned photos:

Work continued on the interior:

Water Tank under V-berth.

Because I used slightly thicker plywood for the bulkheads, the chain plates support (lying beween the two bulkheads) would no longer fit. It was cut, shortened, and re-welded to fit tightly between the new plywood. This had to be done on both sides.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Previous Post: Part 10: Interior Work Starts in Ernest.
Just a note in passing, today marks exactly one year since we pulled the Ballad home. At times things seem to be going pretty slow, but looking back at the early pictures I realize just how far we've come.

Friday, June 8, 2012

It seems as though progress has been slow, but checking my photo files I realize this is not the case. Several non-boat related projects have been completed, freeing me up to concentrate on the Ballad again.

The damage around the table supports in the cockpit floor greeted me every time I climbed into the boat, so it was time to attend to that job.

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Leaking damaged area around table leg sleeve.

I cut out the damaged areas around both sockets and filled them with epoxy-soaked plugs, adding a layer of epoxy to fill them back to original floor level.

Epoxy/plywood plug.

A reinforcing piece was added below to strengthen the repair, and allow leg sockets to be added, if needed, in the future.

Epoxy/plywood reinforcement patch, curing with a little help from a heat lamp.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

The last few weeks many projects have been started, but nothing is getting finished as I source, order, and wait for parts I think I need ... only to discover by the time they arrive I've had a better idea and need to re-order!

First on the list was to get the engine into the boat. This was easy: just pull the trailer out of the shed, hoist the engine up to the shed rafters (on a reinforced arch), back the boat into the shed, and lower the engine down.

Yanmar dangling over the cockpit.

This was as good a time as any to refurbish the engine beds. When a P.O. (previous owner) had the Volvo-to-Yanmar conversion done some wooden shims were used to get the correct engine height. This served well for the time it was used but, having the luxury of unlimited time, a more permanent set of shims was made from 1/2" aluminum plate, and the mounts re-drilled, re-tapped, and installed.
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Thursday, February 23, 2012

The original shed was too low to get the Ballad under, so I raised the side walls from pallet height to about 72". This put a wider part of the shed at boat deck level, and gave more headroom when working on the decks. It was long overdue, as the original pallet base and walls, sitting on the ground, were rapidly turning into compost!
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New boat shed walls under old arches.

Next on the program was to get trailer and boat together. This required hiring a local crane to do the job. Having 4-wheel drive and 4-wheel steering certainly helped it negotiate the driveway.

Monday, October 10, 2011

As you can see by the picture below, Bennath's hull is now free of all the old bottom paint, and since the photo was taken she has lost the blue beltline stripe as well.

Naked hull.

Time to start the layout for new bulkhead panels. As I could not get 15mm plywood I used 3/4" instead ... a little heavier maybe, but one has to go with what's available.

Maximizing wood use.

One bulkhead was too large to get through the hatch, so it had to be cut in two. The new one was also made in two pieces, with a joint 12" in from the inboard edge. This allows the part that bolts to the hull flange to remain in one piece. The two will have to be joined inside the boat.
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Main bulkhead joint with joiner strip. (Final strip used was plywood as the grain of the solid wood strip lacked strength.)

Thursday, August 18, 2011

It's a relief to stop taking things off the boat and start some serious rebuilding work. One of the first jobs, after removing all the debris from the old ceilings, was to "de-glue" the hull sides. In places the old adhesive peeled off in sheets, partly due to the moist conditions in the boat. But most of it put up a good fight, and it took an assorted arsenal of tools to persuade it to let go.

Tool Arsenal

My main tools were a razor blade scraper, a wire brush, an old 1/2" chisel, gloves, and a kneeling pad. I found that if I kept the razor blade wet when scraping the glue did not re-stick to the fiberglass. Another useful tool was an abrasive pad, also kept wet. Even after it was all removed (two days work) little bits of rubbery glue were everywhere, trying their best to re-adhere to anything they came in contact with!

Wire Brush in Action

Working inside the bare hull was interesting: everything dropped immediately headed for the bilge, and unless I kept a grip on something I was apt to slide bilgeward also!

Most of the gear I removed was in decent shape. The winches, although dirty with debris, are in good working condition and should be fine after a good cleaning and lubrication.

Electric Chevy S-10 Conversion

About Me

My interest in boats started around age 14, when I built a couple of small dinghies and sailed them on local waters. Arthur Ransome's "Swallows and Amazons" books had a huge influence on me.
Life interrupted my sailing days, and it wasn't until I was 53 when my interest was rekindled after re-reading "Sailing Alone Around the World" by Joshua Slocum.
Since then I've had a succession of craft, including a Montgomery 17, a Lancer 25, a San Juan 24, an Albin Vega 27, and my latest, a 30' Albin Ballad.